The Mana Ocean hissed as it violently reabsorbed the Impure mana, its corrupting effects visibly evident. Previous grey and blue swirls were tainted by that of 'Illusion' as the Pure mana battled for control against the taint. It was fortunate that this was only a Tier 1 Spell, as the war was swiftly won, leaving Pure as the righteous victor. Amy watched it all by the side-lines, cringing away from what she had done. Failed Spells were inherently corruptive, yes, but this was especially bad. Fortunately the Spell was only corruptive, and not apocalyptic. Now that would've got her killed. If not from the mana poisoning then definitely by the weight of the Empire coming down upon her without any remorse. For good reason, too. Another set of Mage Wars could not be allowed to happen. While the Wars were almost a century ago, five of Amy's lifetimes, they were still fresh in the minds of the Monarchs. And, as all immortals tend to do, they overreact when something would threaten them with death.
Once the final mote of 'Illusion'-touched mana was destroyed by the Ocean, Amy finally let out a sigh of relief, thankful that it hadn't gotten any worse. Yes, it was a failure, but not only was it not catastrophic but it was one she expected. Perfectly casting a never before seen practised Spell from a strange Element? That was the stuff of stories and insane prodigies, not her. Amy's talent was as standard as they come and that meant practice wasn't a stranger. The first thing to analyse though was what caused the failure.
There are three major possible points of failure, Amy thought as she tucked the book back into her bag for now. The obvious one is the Elemental visualisation. There's no way I was getting that right with how stingy the book was about telling what was needed of me. The second one is likely the Magecraft. Although I think I got it pretty correct, there's a chance too big to ignore that I got it completely wrong. Finally, there's the least likely one: Spellform construction. Unlike many of my peers, I'd say I'm pretty good at Spellcrafting and I've gotten used to looking at Spellforms for long periods of time trying to get them right. I probably shouldn't even bother listing it as a possible area, but being careful has never hurt anyone.
Separate to all of that is the monster in the room that I'm ignoring. Well, two monsters. Only one is relevant though. The assumption that the book is correct about Elemental Illusion, Amy considered, moving to her hidden compartment to retrieve the metal 'bracelet' from it. I'll have to make sure about Illusory Bolt needing to be Tier 2 if such a Spell exists, yet I'm beginning to think what I was taught is wrong, or at least incomplete. Or Illusion really is Esoteric.
Then, there's the names. The other monster. A couple of possibilities for that one: either the book wasn't finished and they coincidentally left out the names with the exact spacing needed, or they were removed by something or someone. Even taking the more likely one into account, why would someone do such a thing? If they were trying to erase an entire School out of spite, why not destroy the books? Why erase only the names? Or is it about recognition? I heard some devils are very interested in names so could the erasure be related to that? Someone made a deal with a devil and offered up the name of everyone in the School? That suggests a position of power though, as I doubt any random person could just sign a devil contract on an entire School's behalf. Too much to think about, and while one of the mysteries is more interesting than the other, the boring one is a lot safer and more practical for me to look into. I do not want to be digging into whatever caused that.
Slipping the 'bracelet' onto her wrist, she gathered and directed a mote of ambient mana towards it, infusing a small node on the side of it. The device took a few seconds to process the mana before a light was projected out of it towards her, presenting an odd translucent blue panel.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to Felix's Pocket Grimoire!
For all of your magical and mundane needs!
Welcome back, Amy Wachlund!
According to your FPG's records, your last date of access was 1 year, 2 months, and 26 days ago!
Would you like a reminder of your FPG's capabilities?
YES / NO
_______________________________________________________________________________
Projecting her mind towards the strange window, Amy selected 'NO'. The window glimmered then changed to show the menu.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Mageling Amy Wachlund's Pocket Grimoire
MENU
Grimoire
Arcane Repository
FPG Settings
Exit Menu
_______________________________________________________________________________
Amy thought over her options for a little bit before deciding what she had planned to do originally, selecting 'Arcane Repository'. A second screen popped up in front of the original, this time red in colouration.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Alert!
You currently have Spell Sharing disabled.
One of the FPG's main principles is to connect Mages to each other everywhere to allow for easy
access to Spells and the dissemination of knowledge. Spell Sharing is an important and vital feature
of the FPG and without it your experience of the Repository will not be the same.
Enabling this feature will mean that the FPG automatically detects when a new Spell is made or
casted and is added to your Arcane Repository profile, ready to be shared with a thought.
Would you like to enable it?
YES / NO
_______________________________________________________________________________
Stolen novel; please report.
As she had done every time before this, Amy selected 'NO' and the window disappeared, the mana projecting it returning to the bracelet. The original screen disappeared too for a moment before returning with a green background, her personal preference.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Arcane Repository!
Connecting Mages across the globe!
Browse Official Repository Spells
Browse Shared Spells
Share Spell
Enable Spell Sharing to access this feature!
Report Spell
Spell of the Week
As decided by you!
Tier 2 - Shit Bolt
Fire a bolt of shit at a target.
Mage's Note: This was made for a dare and ended up being quite good. Check it out!
Exit Arcane Repository
_______________________________________________________________________________
Pausing at seeing the most popular Spell of the week, Amy allowed herself a chuckle or two before searching for all of Tier 1 Bolt Spells listed, looking through the official Repository results first, a new screen popping up.
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Official Repository Search Results
Filter: Tier 1, 'Bolt' Template, All Elements
Tier 1 - Pure Bolt
Fire a bolt of pure mana at a target.
Tier 1 - Fire Bolt
Fire a bolt of fire at a target.
Tier 1 - Water Bolt
Fire a bolt of water at a target.
Tier 1 - Earth Bolt
Fire a bolt of earth at a target.
Tier 1 - Wind Bolt
Fire a bolt of wind at a target.
Tier 1 - Light Bolt
Fire a bolt of light at a target.
Tier 1 - Dark Bolt
Fire a bolt of darkness at a target.
Tier 1 - Space Bolt
Fire a bolt of spatial distortion at a target.
Tier 1 - Time Bolt
Fire a bolt of temporal distortion at a target
Tier 1 - Disruption Bolt
Fire a bolt of concentrated pure mana at a target.
<< ? ? ? >>
Exit Search Menu
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Absolutely nothing, Amy thought, scrolling through the pages looking for anything related to an Advanced Tier 1 Bolt. The closest I can get is the Void Bolt which I already know is a bit like a half-step Advanced Element, it's Tier 1 Bolt being pretty lacklustre because of it. And searching for Tier 2 Bolt Spells with Basic Elements yields nothing. I wonder though... is there a Tier 2 Illusory Bolt listed? Yes, there is!
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Tier 2 - Illusion Bolt
Brief - Fire a fake bolt of mana at a target.
MTR-Mana Cost - Very Low
Attunement Difficulty - Low
Range ~ 10m
Description:
Shoot a fake small projectile of mana at a target within medium range.
Casting Details:
Element - Illusion
Elemental Affinity - 8%
Previously Casted - No
Spellform - VIEW
Suggest Edit
Vote for Spell of the Week
Return to Search Results
_______________________________________________________________________________
And Lord is that different from Illusory Bolt. Not only different in name, but completely different in effect too. This Bolt does no damage at all which you'd expect from an Illusion rather than whatever weirdness the Wizard one does. Oh, the Mage Tier relative mana cost is very low too. I definitely didn't feel that when casting Illusory Bolt. I wouldn't say it's a medium cost, but it's definitely at least low.
Switching her attention away from the official Spells and into the shared ones, Amy found most of the same. Of course there were joke Spells, written in a way that made them very much fake, but for the most part there were iterations of the same type of official Spell just ever so slightly different, repeated for each one. The search was a bust. Closing the FPG completely, putting the metal bracelet back into the compartment, Amy grumpily picked up the other book in the drawer and closed it back off. Careful with the old yellowed pages, she placed the grimoire she found in the coffin on her kitchen table and began to flip through, searching for other readable pieces of information. For the most part it was completely unreadable paragraphs of nonsense, before it suddenly switched languages to one she understood and began to read like a reminder sheet. 'Buy milk'; 'Tell ? ? ? ? ? ? ? about the curriculum change'; or 'Visit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? for permission' were only some of the things listed, all the names included removed, just like the other book. On occasion it was something more, yet it might as well have been in a different language for Amy, whatever the author was writing down making no sense, like they were the rambling gibberish of a madman. As much as she'd love to understand the writings she could, and study from the personal notes of an ancient Archmage, she was well in over her head. The only semblance of something more was with the so-called 'Familiar' Spells, their Spellforms meticulously penned out in excruciating detail. While she stared at the Spellform for the final Tier 11 Spell, Amy could only wonder how long it had taken to write it all out; and how many mistakes were made that meant redo's.
What is a Familiar? And why is it the only Spell in this book? It makes zero sense for a grimoire! Amy complained, almost nearing the back of the book. It's obvious that most of the Spells are probably hidden behind that coded language, but why leave one decoded? Maybe it's a key of sorts, used to decrypt the language? As if the Spell is making the writings 'familiar' to the reader, and, most importantly, readable. It's a possibility. It could be a combination of Unknowable and Fae then, if my hypothesis of what the Elements are holds true. A Spell to make the writings 'Unknowable' and then a Spell to affect the senses of the Mage to allow for them to read it, changing the 'Fae'-ling of it. A bit of a stretch but it seems like a good theory. Although I'm unsure of the Fae part of it, the Unknowable aspect seems likely. Making text unreadable should be pretty simple for an Element called-
"The names!" Amy exclaimed, scrambling back to the legible notes. Of course something called 'Unknowable' could be used to erase names! It likely works off of the same principle as the scrambling, just a different application of it. If someone made these names 'Unknowable' then, why? A safety precaution against an insurmountable enemy? Or does my other idea still hold, and it was someone else making them 'Unknowable'? Either way, it's a step forward. Well, maybe not in the direction I want to or should be going in, but it's a step.
Yet, all of this is still unconfirmed and I have no way to see if it's correct. The names seem like a big thing to pursue, as whatever caused them to be erased is most likely way too dangerous to cover for a Mageling like me. Some simpler things like Illusory Bolt should be enough at the moment. If that goes well I can look into its Elemental typing too, finally sorting out why it's called Esoteric. Still, either way I go with the Bolt...
"I have a lot of practice to do."
Opening the other book back up to Illusory Bolt's Spellform and putting it besides the grimoire, Amy readied her Magecraft as she focused inwards. Only this time, with a lot less concern, and with a slight smile on her face.
